Players can't say they didn't hear the air horn

Every morning, a Carolina Panther intern walks the halls of Wofford's dormitories. Armed with an air horn, the intern is the players' 7 a.m. wake-up call.

"I hate the air horn," said guard Doug Brzezinski. "It's the worst way to start your day." Brzezinski said he deals with the air horn by setting his alarm for 15 minutes before the wake-up call. Brzezinski would rather already be awake and watching television than wake up to the horn.

Second-year intern Jason Bright said the players usually start to complain after a couple of weeks of camp. "In the first half of camp, nothing. As camp drags on and they start to get homesick they'll start to get mad and tell me to shut up," Bright said.

Several interns take turns doing the wake-up calls. Bright said he has never had any significant problems but has heard stories about players chasing the person with the air horn down the hall.

Not all players dread hearing the air horn in the morning. "I just kind of look forward to it," said running back DeShaun Foster. "You know it's time to go." He tries not to let himself think anything negative when he hears it.

"If you start thinking that, you know it's going to be a bad day," Foster said.

The air horn doesn't bother safety Mike Minter, either.

"It's time to get up -- that's the only thing that goes through my head," Minter said.

Most players still get annoyed with it. "Today it went off right in front of my door and I was like, 'That's way too close,' " said linebacker Will Witherspoon.